Wind power at a tiny fishermen island in Pakistan

Will small steps like this make a lasting difference in how communities view their energy security and usage? I have often wondered why communities in cities, towns and villages that have rampant power shortages don;t come together and install their own distributed power generation systems. Instalation of wind turbines, distributed solar, or even large diesel generators would be so much more efficient (and in the long term cost-effective) than the UPS/small gen-set system that is currently prevalent.

In the 80’s, when security was abysmal in cities, communities (mohallas) came together to install gates, hire their own guards, and created locally/self-protected neighborhoods. That was a good example of a community banding together for something more substantial than just an annual Haleem meal cookout.

Let’s hope Pakistanis will learn a lesson from these fishermen. For more details, click here:

KHAROCHHAN, Pakistan: A tiny island of fishermen is light years ahead of the rest of Pakistan, powering homes and businesses with wind turbines – protecting the environment and improving the quality of life.

The government may lack the cash to harness hydro, wind and solar resources on a large scale in the electricity-starved country but charities are lighting the way forward by putting wind power to work in remote villages.

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Lying 150 kilometers due south of Pakistan’s financial capital Karachi, Kharochhan is an island of thatched homes where fishermen scrape by on $75 a month and never dreamed of having electricity.

Then a local charity pitched up and installed five wind turbines. Now a fifth of homes – 100 out of around 500 – have been hooked up to the system.

“Each of us saves up to 1,500 rupees ($18) that we would have spent on kerosene. I couldn’t afford to educate my children, but now I’ll put two of my four daughters in school,” Arif said.

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Shah Kamal, who designs wind turbines, says the high winds that batter Pakistan’s 1,050-kilometer coastline are perfect for powering turbines and cutting power shortages.

The applied physics graduate said the energy crisis, which sees power cut for 10 hours a day when temperatures top 40 degree Celsius, forced him to design and mount a wind-turbine generator on the roof of his house in Karachi.

“When I solved my own problems, I thought why not provide similar advantages to other people?” he said.